Earthquake researchers in California hope to take advantage of the motion sensors in laptops to create an earthquake-sensing network. By putting computers in homes and businesses to work as seismic monitors, the researchers hope to pull together a wealth of information on major quakes, and perhaps even offer early warnings, giving a few seconds' notice of a potentially devastating quake.
A California company is planning to launch a satellite that will monitor, and hopefully one day predict, the state's shakiest feature - earthquakes.
Thousands of instruments emplaced around the world to detect earthquakes and monitor once-secret Soviet nuclear tests are finding new uses for scientists in a field they call "forensic seismology." So sensitive are the devices that they can even measure the precise timing of waves pounding against a shoreline after a storm, and record the impact of plane crashes, falling buildings or explosions.
Seismologists are using advanced digital seismic arrays and Global Positioning System sensors to help intelligence officials listen for the construction of underground weapons stores and terrorist havens.
Exploding meteors bombarding the Earth from space could be mistaken for nuclear bomb tests, say seismologists of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. This could present problems for monitoring the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which aims to halt the testing of all nuclear weapons.